Meanwhile, Back in the Ningenkai
by nightwalker3
Summary: Sometimes being the normal one is the really exhausting job.


Ummm... This has no point. And no redeeming values.

Ficcage set after Sensui through the end of the series although I took some serious liberties with canon. Kuwabara's POV. Kurama/Kuwabara. PG for mild language and kissy-stuff.

You Have Been Warned!

* * *

**Meanwhile, Back in the Ningenkai**

It was a year after Urameshi had made his triumphant and rather anticlimactic return to the human world – not that he had stayed, once making his triumphant return. Instead he dropped by for a week or so, then would vanish again for a month or longer. When she was tired and stressed and missing him, Keiko would complain that it had been easier to deal with when he hadn't been around at all. Kuwabara was inclined to agree. He wasn't dating the guy or anything – dear _god_ no – but Urameshi was a chaotic influence in their lives even when they could see him coming. Flitting back and forth between worlds like he was, they never knew when he'd be back, or what they'd be doing the next time he showed up. It tended to make Kuwabara feel like he was in a permanent game of catch-up, even moreso than Urameshi usually made him feel.

But chaotic and confusing was pretty much the natural order of things, and a year after Urameshi's return, four years after his departure, after Sensui, and just a little more than five years after Urameshi had started it all by getting himself smeared across the pavement, Keiko and Kuwabara graduated from high school.

It should be noted they did not graduate from the _same_ high school. Keiko had gotten into Jonan Academy, a school that made prestigious sound like something the little people did. They had some of the highest standards in the country, and rumor had it that every year someone killed themselves over the entrance exams. Keiko had set her sights on it while she was still in grade school, apparently, and she'd studied her brains out to get it. No one was surprised in the least when she was accepted.

Kuwabara hadn't even thought about Jonan, even though Keiko had tugged on his sleeve once and said it would be fun if they went to the same high school in a ridiculously endearing voice. But Jonan was the sort of school Kuwabara would never see the inside of unless he was hired on as a janitor and he'd said as much. Keiko had pouted, but not pushed the subject, which made him grateful. He wanted to be serious about school, wanted to do something with his life that didn't involve fighting, but at the time he still hadn't had a clue how to go about it.

It was Kurama, perhaps unsurprisingly, who had first given him the idea.

"Have you thought about the entrance exams?" Kurama had asked him.

It had been late at night and they were in Kurama's backyard trying to act normal for his family while still processing the last few days. Kuwabara was in a foul mood, torn between a tired sort of depression and outright fury, and after losing his temper with Shizuru once too often for his own continued good health he had taken off and somehow ended up here. Kurama had welcomed him in, invited him to dinner, and kidnapped him to the backyard where they could talk without the normal humans overhearing.

Not that they were saying much.

"Yeah." Kuwabara leaned forward and stretched, feeling the wind bite through his t-shirt. He'd left in too bad a mood and too big a hurry to grab his coat and he was starting to regret it. "Sort of a dawning terror kind of thing, I guess."

"Do you know where you'll be applying?"

"I haven't thought about it." It occurred to him that no one was asking Urameshi about things like entrance exams, but then the idea of Urameshi going to high school was a pretty alien concept. He wondered what it said about him that Kurama assumed he would go. He could drop out with the best of them, after all.

But he didn't want to. He was tired of demon-hunting, tired of saving the world and really, really tired of fighting. Even with Urameshi.

Not much point anymore, after all. A human wouldn't stand much chance against an S-class demon in a fair fight. Hell, he could cheat and he'd probably still get his ass handed to him, only worse 'cause Yusuke hated dirty fighters.

"Yet," he added, because it was true. "I don't know what I'm doing yet. But I will." He would. "There's more to life than makai and tournaments, right?" He tipped his head back to look at the stars; Kurama's family lived in the suburbs and you could see some of them this far from the city lights. "Maybe I should start learning about some of it. I can't exactly make a living working for Koenma, can I?"

Especially not anymore. Sensui had been bad enough, knowing that it was a human causing all the trouble, knowing that he'd been like them once, some poor kid in over his head with demons and the spirit world. Seeing what the consequences had been – that was like a slap in the face. Most Tantei didn't live long enough to go insane, of course, and the ones that didn't go mad or die were spared because they had gotten out in time. Kuwabara didn't think Yusuke was likely to do either, but then he'd already been dead, and on a good day he wasn't entirely sane. Kuwabara himself, on the other hand, was still alive and kicking and liked to think that he had his head screwed on, if a little bit crooked. So, no more rekai tantei, not after Sensui, Not after seeing all that.

Not with the lingering conviction that it was probably his fault.

Not Sensui, he'd barely known the son of a bitch was alive. But the rest. Kuwabara was pretty sure that if he'd only managed to _not_ get captured like some useless anime heroine then Kurama wouldn't have had to carry the weight of a ten-year-old's murder, Yusuke wouldn't have died in pain only to come back as a fucking _demon_ – which no one else seemed to think was very weird, but he was pretty much the only human around these days, after all and Keiko was just so happy Yusuke was alive that she probably would have been happy to see him with horns and a purple nose – and just generally a lot of pain and hurt could have been avoided.

"I'm getting pretty tired of demon-hunting anyway," he said determinedly. "Maybe the next time the world needs saving, you guys should just leave me at home and not tell me."

Kurama had looked up, green eyes warm, and said, "But then how could we save it?"

Sometimes Kuwabara could hug him. He really could.

"You'd probably manage," Kuwabara said dryly. "You're the smart one, Urameshi's the strong one and Hiei's the flaming psycho nutjob. It's a good combination. You've got almost every possible situation covered."

"What if we need someone to cut through the dimensional barrier again?"

"I am so going to hell for that," Kuwabara remarked idly. "Koenma didn't go into a whole lot of detail, but I got the impression that Enma was displeased about the whole thing." He gave Kurama points for trying, but that was a pretty specialized job requirement - and if things had gotten to the point where the only way to save the day was to open a path into the demon world… well, that would suck. A lot.

"Enma will just have to adjust." Kurama sounded prickly, which didn't take Kuwabara by surprise, although he did brace himself for a lightning bolt or something.

"Anyway," Kuwabara shrugged. "I just." He was silent for a minute and realized he didn't have a clue what he meant.

"I just don't want to do anything like this ever again," he said finally.

Kurama acknowledged that silently and they sat in companionable quiet for a while. Kurama's mother waved to them from the kitchen window. They could hear his little brother playing video games upstairs.

"You should try for Meiou."

"That's funny."

"I mean it." Kurama caught him in his gaze, steady and confident. "I bet you could get in."

"Please."

"I did."

"That is exactly what I mean," Kuwabara said ruefully. "Do you have any idea what my grades look like?"

"I could hazard a guess," Kurama said dryly. "But grades aren't always indicative of intelligence. And there's time to show them what you're capable of before the entrance exams start. If your grades show marked improvement, and you pass the exams, they'd probably accept you." He plucked a leaf off the grass and twirled it between his fingers. It flashed green to red and back to green before he let it go and the breeze swept it away. "I'd help you study."

"Wow," Kuwabara remarked. "You're a masochist after all. I'd wondered."

Kurama laughed softly, a gentle exhalation and a soft smile. "Think about it."

Shiori called them in eventually and pressed hot tea and a plateful of cookies on them, which they munched on while watching Shuichi-chan try to navigate the Tarzan level in Kingdom Hearts. As he was leaving Kuwabara looked at Kurama and smiled the first real smile he'd been able to muster since Urameshi had come back to life. "Besides," he said off-hand, "could you see me in _pink_?"

Three days later Kuwabara was working on his homework – actually working on it, instead of scribbling random nonsense – when he looked up and saw Kurama perched in his window. After he picked himself up off the floor, he found a catalog shoved under his nose. He snatched it irritably.

"It's from Meiou," Kurama said cheerfully. "They've redesigned the high school uniforms. They're quite flattering now, don't you think?" He flashed a grin full of white teeth and threw himself backwards out the window.

Kuwabara stared at the catalogue for a long time. Longer than he'd realized, because Shizuru stopped by to say goodnight. "Can you see me at Meiou Academy?" he asked.

"Not unless they changed their uniforms," she dismissed him casually.

Wordlessly he handed her the catalogue.

"Oh," she said. "These are nice. Wow, that's going to look good on Kurama."

He rolled his eyes and her and she grinned and blew a ring of cigarette smoke in his direction. "Wouldn't look half bad on you, either."

He discovered very, very quickly that Kurama was a much better study partner than Okubo or Sawamura – not surprising, exactly – and a hell of a lot better than Urameshi. In reality, he was unable to recall a single instance when he and Urameshi had studied anything that wasn't a mission spec, an arcade game, or a particularly nice pair of legs. Kurama, on the other hand, studied everything. _Everything_. And he knew how to get the maximum return on his investment. By the time entrance exams rolled around Kuwabara's grades were a bit above average – an absolute miracle considering he'd been somewhere in a yawning pit of academic despair just a few months earlier. It probably didn't hurt that Kurama was a year older, so when they were studying Kuwabara managed to pick up on things the rest of the class hadn't covered. It was actually kind of nice, he decided, knowing what was going on.

Urameshi bitched constantly that he was now surrounded by nerds and brains. Keiko tartly informed him that since he wasn't inclined to use his own brains, then he should be grateful to have the rest of them around to help him out with the really tough questions, like using the remote control, and how to boil water. Hiei'd been around for that one, which was icing on the cake as far as Kuwabara was concerned.

When the time for entrance exams rolled around – and Kuwabara always thought of them as Entrance Exams, and he had a feeling that when he said the words the capitalization was actually audible – Kuwabara applied to five schools. He barely slept for a week, lived on coffee, and was a complete wreck by the time it was over.

"That was _hell_," he said feelingly as he dropped face down on Kurama's bed and thought yearningly of sleep. "Actual, physical hell. I no longer fear death. Nothing could possibly be worse than this."

The bed dipped slightly as Kurama settled cross-legged near his shoulder. "Waiting for the results is harder," the youko said with damnable amusement. "All that waiting, never knowing if the first word you hear will be success or disappointment. Even the most patient students get antsy."

Kuwabara was definitely _not_ the most patient of students. He wasn't the most patient of anything. He groaned into the comforter and wondered if he could convince Shizuru to let him spend the next few weeks in a coma.

"Where did you apply?" Kurama asked.

Kuwabara shrugged. "A few places. Ryokuen." It was an all-boy boarding school outside the city limits. "Aoba. Keimei-Gakuen. Seisen." International schools, preferred by students who planned on leaving the country to go to college. Kurama shifted slightly at that but didn't say anything. "Meiou."

Kurama poked him in the shoulder. "You'll get in."

"I'm hoping for three out of five. I could be pretty happy with that." He sighed and rolled over. Kurama was leaning over, his hair a red curtain cutting out the rest of the world. "I actually feel kind of good about it. No matter what happens, I'm out of Sarayashiki. I stand half a chance of getting into a decent high school. Maybe college. I could be just a few steps away from becoming a responsible adult." He grinned. "Kinda cool and freaky all at once."

Kurama leaned over and kissed him. It lasted only a moment and was very soft and not earth-shaking so much as just very, very nice. Kuwabara was tired enough that he just blinked and said, "Oh" in a surprised sounding voice.

Kurama's smile was warm. "You'll get in."

"They've definitely done away with the pink?"

"Dead and buried."

"All right then."

There wasn't anything left to study for at the time being, so Kuwabara ended up playing video games with Shuichi-chan while Kurama helped his mother downstairs.

That was the last normal night any of them had together for a while.

Kurama was somewhere in the makai when the exam scores came back, along with Hiei and Urameshi, doing their demon thing, so they missed the celebration Keiko's parents threw over her acceptance to Jonan. Keiko had been on cloud nine, bouncing back and forth across her parents' restaurant between one group of friends and another, laughing, teasing and –toward the end of the evening – getting incredibly nervous.

Kuwabara was there, although he still felt a little weird around Keiko's parents. Yukina sat across the table from him, sipping a vanilla milkshake and being quietly happy for their friend. It had been a good night, and after everyone else had left Keiko had decided that she would help Kuwabara walk Yukina back to the temple. Kuwabara didn't point out that he'd only have to walk Keiko back to her house, which was several blocks out of the way of his house. She was in too good a mood, and just didn't want the night to end yet.

"So give," Keiko demanded when they were halfway to the temple.

He chuckled, low in his throat, genuinely amused. "I might have known you'd know."

"Shizuru tells me everything," Keiko said firmly.

"I didn't tell Shizuru," he countered. She rolled her eyes and him and Yukina giggled quietly. "Not that that's ever stopped her before," he admitted.

Keiko slipped her hand into his and very nearly started skipping. "_So?_"

"I got into Ryokuen," he told her, letting a grin work its way over his face. Compared to Jonan it wasn't much, but it was still a good school. Still more than he'd expected to ever get accepted into.

"_And?_"

"And Seisen and Keimei Gakuen. And Aoba." That had actually been his last choice, but still.

Keiko was practically vibrating in place now. "_And?_"

"_And,_" he teased, "I may have gotten into Meiou."

Keiko shrieked and threw her arms around him while Yukina laughed delightedly. They dragged him to the temple where Yukina informed Genkai of the news and the old hag broke out the sake. Keiko fell asleep on the tatami mats and Genkai called her parents to tell them she'd be spending the night. Yukina kissed Kuwabara on the cheek before he left and Genkai gave him a look that wasn't entirely displeased.

He made it back to the house, where Shizuru was already asleep, and slept better than he had in weeks.

Kurama called from the makai two days later – and Kuwabara was damned if he could figure out how anyone, even an anyone as impressive as Kurama, could make a phone call from the demon world – and informed Kuwabara that the tournament was more fun the first time around.

"Of course it was," Kuwabara laughed. "I was there the first time."

"That's probably what it is," Kurama said. "This tournament is all blood and violence. A hundred demons spitting on each other because they can. There's no heart here."

Kuwabara spent the rest of the day feeling inordinately pleased.

No one did anything productive that spring. Keiko helped her parents in the restaurant but spent most of her days at the temple with Yukina and occasionally Botan. Kuwabara joined them most days, training with Genkai for lack of anything better to do. He wasn't looking for any mystical secrets, but he did learn three new ways to kill someone without using his reiki. It occurred to him, not for the first time that Genkai was a scary old hag, but she certainly knew her stuff.

Halfway through the break, Shizuru announced they were moving. She announced it by flinging open his bedroom door at 5:30 am and throwing a pile of cardboard boxes onto the bed. He spent a confused couple of minutes wondering if she was kicking him out, then an annoyed several hours demanding to know why she hadn't bothered mentioning this to him sooner than the day she actually planned on moving. He stopped bitching when she threatened to charge him rent, and they actually managed to get a lot done that day. Keiko came and helped, and she brought Genkai who contributed largely by barking directions to everyone else. After lunch Kuwabara slipped off and returned dragging Okubo and Sawamura – and Mitarai of all people, who he'd just sort of run into – to help.

The new house was a little bigger, a little nicer – although the last place had been pretty nice all things considered. Atsuko showed up with a bag full of alcohol once they were all moved in and there was no risk of being asked to carry anything, and they toasted the new house.

"Have you heard from Yusuke?" he asked Keiko before she left, but she just shook her head.

Kurama called again, but the connection was terrible – it sounded like he was standing in the middle of a thunderstorm – and he was saying something about Hiei having a girlfriend. Shizuru laughed herself sick when he repeated that tidbit and Yukina looked thoughtful.

There was a demon, which surprised him only a little. He and Keiko dealt with it largely by accident, and Koenma showed up in person long enough to offer Kuwabara a "get out of the reikai tantei free" card, which was only fair since technically Kuwabara'd never signed on in the first place.

Later, he couldn't explain to anyone's satisfaction why he didn't take it.

Everyone came back, even Hiei for a day or two, and for a while it was all fairly normal, albeit from their somewhat skewed perspective. Normal involved no one being dead, and the only demons hanging around were the ones who weren't inclined to kill them, Hiei excepting, but Yukina did a good job of keeping him in line. Kuwabara accepted the normalcy and didn't press too hard because he had a feeling it wasn't going to last.

"You could have come with us," Urameshi said one night when they'd stayed up till dawn watching zombie flicks and drinking enough that the movies didn't suck.

"I'd have been killed," Kuwabara said sourly and it wasn't pessimism speaking.

"You didn't have to fight. You could've just come."

"I'd have been bored." Kuwabara objected lightly. He didn't say that it would have hurt to see the others going on without him, that it was self-preservation as much as anything that kept him in the human world this time around. "Or someone would have killed me to piss you off again."

It was a low blow, but it worked. Urameshi dropped the subject and didn't bring it up again. He left a few days later.

Kurama swung by at the end of spring break, a week or two before classes started, and announced he was leaving for a few days. "Yomi will not accept my absence for too long," he said with a shrug, and only one of his friends would have noticed the tight thread of irritation running through his voice. Urameshi and Hiei thought this whole kingdom thing was great, but Kurama it seemed had other ideas. Kuwabara wondered why he'd competed at all if he wasn't looking for power, but he'd learned by now to hold his tongue. Kurama slid a soft hand over his cheek and around the back of his neck. "I'll be back for the first day. If you're late I'll be disappointed."

Kuwabara smiled and promised to be on time.

He was almost a liar except for Keiko. The day classes started he woke to someone knocking on the door and realized that his alarm clock was blinking 12:00 at him in bright red digits. He swore colorfully and tumbled out of bed, grabbing a pair of jeans on his way to the front door.

It was Keiko, looking like she'd just stepped out of a magazine, her hair pulled back and her brown skirt and jacket immaculately arranged. Kuwbara took a moment to appreciate the fact that Jonan made some very attractive uniforms before remembering he was wearing nothing but his underwear and an unzippered pair of jeans. "The power went out," he explained, hiding half behind the door and manfully ignoring Keiko's giggles.

"I know." She was bouncing up and down on her toes, bouncing the brand new book satchel Atsuko had given her against her knees. "I use the alarm on my cell phone just in case. I thought you might need a wake-up call."

He didn't say anything about the fact that she was so dedicated to her studies that she routinely prepared for power failures. "What time is it?"

"Six-thirty. Well, a few minutes past." Keiko shouldered her way inside, not too bothered by the presence of a nearly-naked boy. But then, she'd grown up with Urameshi who made inhibitions sound like an endangered species.

"Six-thirty?" he stared. "You're ready to go by _six-thirty?_"

"And a good thing I am, isn't it?" she replied tartly. "I'll make breakfast, you go get dressed."

He showered, dressed and grabbed his things before heading back downstairs. He paused in the doorway, feeling a little conspicuous and a little like an imposter. Keiko was making eggs and toast over the stove. "That looks nice," she said approvingly. "Those silly tunics were so old-fashioned. This makes a much nicer statement."

Kuwabara had never actually thought of school uniforms as having a statement before, besides the fairly obvious one of which school the wearer went to, but in this case he supposed he could agree, even if the message was 'I'm wearing slacks and a tie'. Keiko's uniform certainly made a couple of statements, the first and most obvious one being 'this cost a hell of a lot of money'. It had, in fact, cost enough that her parents had only been able to afford one. Atsuko and Shizuru had chipped in and gotten her two others so she didn't have to wash it every night. His own hadn't been as bad, though still light-years beyond Sarayashiki – but everything was light-years beyond that place now, including them.

"Eggs?" he said finally, and she waved him toward the table. Two plateful of eggs and toast appeared a second later, followed by juice and they ate in silence, both nervous for different reasons.

They left the dishes in the sink for Shizuru when she got back from work and started walking. Jonan was closer than Meiou – it would probably have been more efficient to take the bus, which he'd been planning to do before Keiko showed up at his front door – but they were marginally in the same direction. And they'd been walking to school together for two years now and some habits just died hard.

Jonan was as impressive as its uniforms – a large stone building with a landscaped campus and actual _gates_ just in case a B- student tried to sneak in, no doubt. Keiko hesitated and tipped her head to the side. "Do you really think he'll be back?" she asked.

_Of course,_ he almost said, _it's the first day of school. He'd never miss that._ But he held his tongue at the last minute because he knew Keiko probably wasn't thinking about Kurama.

He wasn't sure why he was, for that matter.

"Course he will," he said firmly. "You think he could stay away from you for very long?"

"Three years is feeling pretty long to me."

"Think of all the studying you'll get done without Yusuke to distract you. All the friends you'll make without him to frighten them off. All the grey hairs and heart attacks you'll avoid." He grinned and risked death by mussing up her hair, laughing when she shrieked and squirmed out of reach. "You'll need those three years just to get your strength built up. Can you imagine what kind of a terror he's going to be when he finally gets _back?_"

Keiko smiled a little unsteadily and smoothed her hair back into place. "Thank you, Kuwabara-kun."

He shrugged. "Just the truth."

"You should get going. You'll be late. Kurama will be mad." She grinned knowingly although he couldn't for the life of him figure out what she was all knowing _about_.

Kuwabara was not late. Kurama was present. No one was mad and the first day was remarkable only in its sheer normalcy. A few of Kurama's friends recognized Kuwabara, which might not prove to be a good thing, exactly. But Kurama's word was law at that school, a fact Kuwabara noted and made prompt plans to abuse in the near future.

And eventually, years passed.

Kurama graduated in late February the same year Yusuke finally came back. It was long, boring and Kuwabara would have fallen asleep several times if Keiko and Shizuru hadn't both threatened him with death if he did. He didn't feel too bad about it when he realized the graduates all looked as bored as he was.

Kurama's parents threw a celebration and invited everyone, right down to Genkai who declined the invitation on the grounds that she'd rather be dead. Kurama found a nicer way to phrase that, something about Genkai being deeply involved with a student at the moment – which made Kuwabara snicker about a student named Game Mao and excuse himself before the red-head turned on him.

The party itself was low-key, but Shiori kept the food coming and everyone went home relaxed. Kuwabara offered to help clean up and Kurama accepted with a thoughtful look that set of warning bells in the back of his head. But he pitched in and helped clean up and by the time they were done it was late enough that Shiori asked him to stay the night. He crashed on a roll-out futon in Kurama's room and fell asleep to weird dreams about serving drinks in a demon restaurant. It was disconcerting all by itself, and then he woke to movement, the scent of shampoo and aftershave and the weight of strong hands at his shoulders and a slender body straddling his hips. His instincts kicked in, whispering Kurama's name in time to keep him from lashing out – trying to throw Kurama probably would have just ended up with him embarrassing himself anyway – and he blinked up into the night, trying to shed the last tendrils of the dream. Kurama leaned forward and red hair brushed against the side of his face, spiderwebs in the dark, but it felt good. And the Kurama was kissing him and that felt great.

"What is this?" he asked quietly.

"This is you finally being old enough that I don't feel like a pedophile," Kurama replied easily.

He thought about that for a minute. In his human body, Kurama was only a year older than he was. "This may not be the time, but how old are you?"

He'd gone to sleep in his boxers, since he didn't exactly have pajamas hidden under his suit, and Kurama's hands on his chest were very warm. Very warm. Kind of distracting, as a matter of fact. He closed his eyes and completely missed whatever answer Kurama gave him.

Spring break passed. Kurama worked through most of it, having opted out of college, going straight into a position at his step-father's company. Everyone was surprised, maybe even Kurama. He was looking for a place to live, but he wasn't in any hurry yet. He spent a lot of time after work at Kuwabara's, which didn't bother the younger boy at all. Although he did nearly have to kill himself when Shizuru found out.

Then classes were starting again, Kuwabara found out that he was starting the year near the top of his class, Shizuru landed a new job through some contacts of Atsuko's, Genkai decided that she wasn't talking to anyone under a hundred years old and kicked them all out of the temple for a couple weeks, Kido shanghaied them into dealing with a pack of half-bloods trying to cause trouble at his school and Keiko decided that a picnic on the beach was just the thing they all needed.

Between freaking out about all the possibly illegal things Shizuru was now doing for a living, the fact that his schoolwork had tripled in his senior year, and the fact that years after he'd called it quits he was _still fighting demons, damnit,_ Kuwabara's last thought in the world was that Yusuke's three years were almost up.

They nixed Keiko's picnic idea, but Shizuru took her shopping and they all agreed to meet after lunch. Genkai condescended to talk to them all just for the day. Yukina decided to join them, taking a lot of the tension out of the day, as far as Kuwabara was concerned. The beach was nice. Keiko was a little on the quiet side. Kuwabara spent the day wondering what she'd do if Yusuke didn't show up soon.

Nobody had a lot of fun.

Then he showed up just as they were all ready to leave.

_Son of a bitch,_ Kuwabara thought. _How does he always do that?_

And the thing of it was, nothing changed.

"It's a rip-off," he complained to Kurama one weekend afternoon less than a month after Yusuke came back. They were waiting for the train to take them downtown. Kurama had to stop by the office to drop off some paperwork and then they were going to a baseball game.

"Oh?" the red-head didn't seem terribly outraged on his behalf, but Kuwabara was willing to overlook that considering that an outraged Kurama usually meant someone was dead and things weren't that bad yet.

"Three years everyone's walking around counting the days till Urameshi comes back," Kuwabara said irritably. "Three years!"

"Three years," Kurama agreed.

A group of school-aged girls gathered on the platform a few feet down and began staring at Kurama.

"It's a rip-off!" Kuwabara repeated. "Three years!"

Kurama's expression became less patient and slightly pained.

"I'm just saying. We spend three years waiting for that little shit to show his face again, three years waiting around with our lives on hold, and now he's back and nothing's different." He jammed his hands in his coat pockets and glared balefully at the tracks.

Kurama made a non-committal humming sound.

One of the schoolgirls giggled, then hid behind her friends.

"Is your life on hold?" Kurama asked.

Kuwabara gave him a confused look. "What?"

"Your life," Kurama asked patiently. "Was it on hold all this time?"

"I-" He stopped himself, thinking about it.

Kurama waited.

"Well," he said slowly, "aside from getting into a good school, and moving into a new house, making the team at school, finding out about Yukina and Hiei, working with Genkai and Kido and Botan, that whole demon thing a few years ago, the demon thing a few weeks ago, getting my driver's license and being at the top of my class for the first time ever when four years ago I'd have told you I'd never make it to high school at all. Aside from that."

Kurama lifted an eyebrow at him.

Kuwabara hid a grin. "You were just a distraction."

The youko tipped his head to the side, indicating the girls just a few feet away. "I bet I could tell them we were sleeping together and they'd rip your head off for me."

"They probably would." He eyed them warily. In four years at Meiou Academy he had developed a healthy fear of Kurama's fanclubs.

"A distraction, hm?"

"Well," he shrugged, "a good one."

"The schoolgirls are starting to look appealing," Kurama mused thoughtfully. "At least I could be certain I had their complete attention."

"They'd latch onto you like lampreys," Kuwabara disagreed. "They'd suck your blood like vampires. Angsty, whiny, emotional, vampiric lampreys."

"Yes," Kurama said impassively. "Such teenagers."

Kuwabara gave him a narrow-eyed glare. "That was low, Kurama."

"A distraction, hm?"

"Maybe not a distraction, exactly."

"Hmm."

Kuwabara rubbed a hand over his chin, glanced at Kurama out of the corner of his eye. "A change, maybe."

"A change."

"A good change." A very good change.

"Even without Yusuke?"

Kuwabara grinned. "Yusuke can stay the hell out of this."

He did, for the most part. He came, he went, he spent more time in the makai than he did in the human world and Keiko's temper reached boiling point once a month. The school year went by quickly and by February, Keiko was in a constant state of near-insanity. She was valedictorian and the additional responsibilities on top of everything else she had on her plate made her interesting to be around. Kuwabara ended up eighth out of – well, he wasn't sure exactly, but it was a _lot_ more than eight. He almost choked when he found out.

Urameshi showed up sometime in early February and made the extremely foolish mistake of asking why everyone was so keyed up.

Kuwabara leaned against the wall, catching a smoke while he listened to the rising voices coming from inside the little ramen shop Keiko's parents ran. He'd have gone farther, given them some real privacy, but it was raining and nothing sucked quite as much as a wet cigarette. So he tried to tune them out and waited for someone to go storming off.

It didn't take long. A few minutes later Urameshi stalked out the door with his hands jammed in his pockets and his shoulders hunched against the rain. Kuwabara knocked the ash loose from the end of his cigarette and glanced inside.

It was nearly midnight, and the shop was long since closed. Keiko stood in the middle of the restaurant, her hands crossed over her chest, her eyes closed. She looked up when he opened the door and managed a tired smile. "Go on," she said with a little wave. "I'm fine. Kick the shit out of him."

He gave her a rueful look and ducked back outside. Urameshi hadn't made it far. He was standing in the rain halfway down the block. Kuwabara took his time, let his footsteps make some sound on the sidewalk, but Urameshi didn't seem to feel like bolting.

"So, graduation, huh?" Urameshi asked as he approached. "I can't believe I forgot about that."

"Hasn't happened yet," Kuwabara pointed out.

"Yeah. March, right?"

"First weekend."

"Yours too, isn't it?"

"Same day, even."

"Huh." Urameshi grabbed the damp cigarette out of his hand so quickly Kuwabara didn't even see him move. "I can stick around that long."

"That'd make Keiko happy." Well, it would be a start at least.

"Shizuru throwing a party?" Urameshi asked suddenly.

Kuwabara contemplated swiping his cigarette back. "No, actually. Keiko's parents offered the ramen shop. They're going to do a joint thing."

"Nice of them."

"Yeah." He gave up on the cigarette. It was kind of pointless, considering that the thing had been nearly burned down before Urameshi grabbed it.

"All right then." Urameshi took a deep drag off the cigarette, then flicked it at Kuwabara's face. "So. _Kurama._"

Kuwabara batted it away into the rain.

"That's cool. Kurama, I mean." Urameshi shrugged. "Kinda weird. I'm gonna have to ask him what he was thinking."

"If he tells you, pass it along. I haven't figured it out myself yet."

They walked silently in the rain for a few blocks. Kuwabara fished out another cigarette and didn't complain when Yusuke swiped the last one in the pack. They stopped outside Kuwabara's house and Urameshi stared up at the windows. Kuwabara realized Urameshi had probably never been there before.

"So," Urameshi said. "Do you, like, live in fear of Hiei or anything?"

Kuwabara smacked him upside the back of the head. "Go home. Come back tomorrow and apologize to Keiko." He ground his cigarette under his heel and added, "And don't ask Kurama what he was thinking, for God's sake."

Urameshi paused. "Why not?"

Kuwabara grinned. "Because it's very possible he wasn't thinking. And getting him to start now really isn't in my best interests." He tossed a salute to a snickering Urameshi and went inside.

Two days before graduation Keiko showed up at his front door at nearly seven in the morning. Nothing out of the ordinary – they'd been walking to school together since middle school, the only difference now was that she picked him up instead of vice versa. Kuwabara shrugged on his jacket, grabbed his book bag and met her at the door.

"Did Yusuke tell you anything about this weekend?" she demanded.

He frowned at her quizzically. "No?"

"Nothing?" she quizzed.

"Nothing," he confirmed. "Why, what did he do?"

"I don't know." She bounced her bag off her knees and huffed irritably. "Mom and Dad changed the party. They told me this morning that it's not being held at the shop anymore."

Kuwabara caught the sleeve of her coat as she almost stepped off the sidewalk into traffic. "Oh? How does that involve Yusuke?"

"I don't know. But it _must_. Why else would they change it?"

"Where are they changing it to?"

"The park."

If it was an arcade, bar or brothel, Kuwabara could definitely see Urameshi's hand in it. But the park was not high on the list of Urameshi's favorite hangouts. "The park," he said thoughtfully. "And we're sure this has nothing to do with your parents thinking that the weather's going to be nice this weekend so maybe a party in the park will be nice and a little less cramped? Because there's going to be about fifty people crammed into your restaurant, and that's going to involve some lack of personal space. Possibly a crow bar as well."

"A-" Keiko paused. "A crow bar?"

"To pry the last few in," Kuwabara explained.

"This isn't my parents wanting to be outside. This is Yusuke meddling somehow."

"Yeah. Whenever I think of a parent-chaperoned party in the park I think of Urameshi Yusuke."

Keiko gave him a withering glare. "You're not being productive."

Well, no, but then he couldn't really see anything that required him to be productive at the moment. "Keiko-chan, so what if he is involved? So far nothing illegal is going on, the only demon involved is Urameshi himself, and he's involved in something important to you. It could be worse."

Keiko hugged her bookbag to her chest and sighed. "Yusuke doesn't plan well," she said plaintively.

Having been in on what passed for a plan with Urameshi many times in the past, Kuwabara nodded in whole-hearted agreement.

With a tired sigh, she rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I'm being horrible, aren't I? He's just trying to help. I'm the one who was so mad at him because he wasn't getting involved."

"You're not being horrible."

"I'll stay out of it, let him think he's surprising me." Her expression hardened. "But so help me God, if the police show up at my graduation party I'll send him back to the makai in ten different pieces."

Kuwabara found Urameshi at Genkai's. "What are you doing?"

Urameshi was sprawled on the floor in his jeans and a t-shirt, no shoes or socks, balancing a bowl of cereal on his stomach while he watched TV. "I'm watching _Naruto_," he replied absently. "This is pretty good. How come I've never seen it before?"

"I don't think the makai gets cable." Kuwabara leaned against the wall a few feet away and stared at the back of Urameshi's head. "Keiko thinks you're conspiring with her parents."

"I wouldn't say conspiring." Urameshi slurped the milk out of the bottom of the bowl. "Keiko's folks aren't really the type to be involved in a conspiracy, you know?"

"There are no police involved?"

"Not yet!"

"Don't sound excited about the possibility." Kuwabara pushed off against the wall and crossed the room to stand over Urameshi. "Whatever you're up to, it isn't going to come crashing down on Keiko, is it?"

Urameshi finished off the milk with a satisfied smacking of the lips and dropped the bowl with a clatter. "Not this time. This is nothing, Kuwabara. Stop worrying."

Kuwabara snorted. "I've done nothing but worry since you got back, asshole. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop." He sighed and lowered himself to sit cross-legged beside Urameshi. "So what episode is it?"

Graduation was as mind-numbingly dull as Kuwabara remembered Kurama's being. Before it was over he was convinced that every member of the faculty down to the janitor had made a speech of some sort. He just concentrated on maintaining an expression of low-key excitement on his face, no matter how thoroughly they'd managed to kill that emotion.

It was an outdoor ceremony, and as promised, the weather was great. Chairs had been set up on the athletic field behind the school, and a sea of parents and siblings spread out in front of the stage. He recognized younger classmates and a few friends who weren't graduating this year. Shizuru and Yukina were sitting with Kurama and his mother and little brother a few rows back, and Sawamura and Mitarai were sitting in the row behind them. He skimmed the fringes of the crowd and easily spotted Botan lingering at the edge. She'd overdressed for the occasion, he mused cheerfully, but she looked like a knock-out.

The audience seemed to be having more fun than he was. Shizuru had an expression on her face that said clearly she'd kill him if he rolled his eyes or started snoring. Kurama was smirking in a decidedly "now it's your turn" kind of way. It was very unflattering and he projected that feeling at the redhead as strongly as he could. Judging by how the smirk became even more pronounced, Kurama heard him.

Yukina beamed widely at him each time their eyes met, and eventually his smile became less forced and more genuinely pleased. She could still raise his spirits with just a smile.

His gaze slid back over to Kurama. Things certainly had a way of turning out like you least expected. Instead of killing Urameshi, they'd ended up friends. Instead of hooking up with a sweet girl like Yukina – or Botan, he still remembered their first meeting – he'd found himself falling for a demonic thief. He'd never planned on going to high school or college, and now he was graduation one and preparing to start the other. _And the demon thing,_ he mused. _Definitely didn't see that one coming._

The eight hundredth speech was finished, the scholarships and achievements were declared, and the principal began handing out diplomas.

It was early afternoon when everything was finished, and the graduates were released to rejoin their families. Kuwabara, feeling hugely conspicuous in his robes, met his sister and friends at the edge of the stage. He was greeted with a flurry of hugs from the girls, and Shiori kissed his cheek while Mitarai and Sawamura slapped his back with more enthusiasm that he'd thought either one would be able to muster for something school-related. Kurama waited until everyone had finished before he offered Kuwabara his hand and said, in a low, pleased voice that sent a shiver down Kuwabara's spine, "I knew you'd do it."

Kuwabara gripped the offered hand and held it tightly. "Not without you, man."

Shizuru smiled knowingly while Shiori looked pleased at the compliment to her son. Then Urameshi was there with a shit-eating grin, nearly knocked Kuwabara into a wall to display his congratulations and asked why they hadn't left for the party yet.

The party turned out to be neither demon-infested (if one dismissed Urameshi and Kurama) nor implicitly illegal in nature. Kuwabara was impressed.

Picnic tables were covered in paper table clothes. Lanterns hung from the trees. The odd ice sculpture betrayed Yukina's involvement and she blushed prettily when they complimented her. There was enough food to feed a third world nation, unsurprising since Keiko's parents had catered the event themselves. And there was music playing.

"You didn't screw up," Kuwabara said cheerfully.

Urameshi aimed a half-hearted punch at his head, which he let Kuwabara dodge. "You shut up and have a good time before I decide to take my party back."

Shiori stayed long enough to offer her congratulations to Keiko as well, then she and Shuichi left. Their absence was hardly noticed though, considering that Keiko's relatives will filling the park in an ever-increasing throng. Kuwabara didn't know any of them, and it was obvious that most of them weren't around much because they seemed to be under the impression that he was some kind of cousin who had also graduated that day. After the fifteenth explanation of "no, no, Keiko and I are just friends – no, I'm _not_ that Yusuke fellow" he gave up explaining and just smiled when they offered their congratulations.

Keiko's parents may have provided the food, but someone-who-was-probably-Urameshi had supplied a variety of alcohol that would make any recovering alcoholic burst into tears and very soon the party-goers were in a _very_ good mood.

"I asked Kurama what he was thinking." Urameshi appeared at his side with two cups full of something clear, one of which he offered Kuwabara.

"You asked him what?" Kuwabara frowned at the cup. Sake? Then their conversation from a few days ago came back to him and he almost dropped the cup in favor of throttling Urameshi instead. "You _what?_"

"Know what he said?" Urameshi was grinning like a man who had no idea his life was in danger.

"I'm afraid to ask. You look like you enjoyed it too much for it to be good." He gulped the contents of the cup, feeling the sake burn his throat. He crumpled the empty paper cup and threw it in Urameshi's face. "Son of a bitch."

"You're such an easy target." Urameshi rocked back and forth on his toes. "I don't even have to try, you know that?"

"Go bother Keiko for a while."

"He said he thought you were just that hot." Urameshi waggled his eyebrows obscenely.

"Oh, he did _not_," Kuwabara said disgustedly. "Since when are you such a bad liar?"

Urameshi laughed and ducked off into the crowd. Kuwabara glared after him for a second.

"He said he was thinking about you." Urameshi reappeared on his other side, making Kuwabara jump slightly. "That's what he said. He was thinking about you."

Kuwabara reached over without looking and smacked the side of his head. He'd have thrown a punch if he thought Urameshi would have let it land. "What part of "don't ask Kurama" did you have such a hard time with?"

Urameshi shrugged. "Have I ever listened to you?"

"No," Kuwabara said sourly.

"Then you probably should have seen it coming." Urameshi slapped him on the shoulder and disappeared into the crowd again.

The party went on well past dinner, the sake flowing freely, the food being demolished, and Urameshi and Shizuru went on two beer runs. Toward the end of the evening, when the lanterns were lit and people were getting ready to go home, Keiko's parents announced her engagement to Urameshi. That started the whole party up again.

"Inheriting his father's business," Kuwabara mused. "That's a nice piece of obfuscation."

"It's not entirely a lie," Kurama offered in an amused tone. "He did inherit from Raizen."

"I think Keiko's folks are thinking more along the lines of a shoe store or something," Kuwabara returned idly, swirling the dregs of his beer and listening to it slosh against the sides of the can. "Not so much the "prince of the demon world" kind of thing."

"They've known Yusuke a long time," Kurama said. "They might not be all that surprised."

They were sitting side by side with their backs to a tree, several yards away from the rest of the celebration. Kuwabara was just about partied out, but he was also having too much fun to leave yet. Kurama seemed content to sit and watch the others celebrating while nursing his own drink. It was possibly the same one he'd had when the party started several hours earlier. Kurama didn't strike Kuwabara as a heavy drinker.

"I heard you and Yusuke talking earlier," Kurama said quietly.

"Oh?" Kuwabara let his head rest against the tree behind him. "What exactly did Urameshi ask you anyway?"

"Just what he said. He walked up to me and said, I quote: "What were you thinking, Kurama?" It took some interrogating but I figured out what his general meaning was."

"Urameshi's an asshole."

"Urameshi's your friend," Kurama corrected gently. "If I found out that my best friend was getting involved with someone like me, I'd be concerned, too." He moved slightly, and Kuwabara could feel him shrug. "I've done some pretty cold-hearted things while you've known me. He was being careful."

And that was typical Kurama. "Now I can't be angry at him," Kuwabara said irritably. "I was very happy being angry at him. I'm _good_ being angry at him."

Kurama's voice was a purr in his ear. "There are other things you're good at."

Kuwabara turned his head to the side. It was full dark, but the light from the party was enough to see by. "You really told him you were thinking about me?"

"For some time now," Kurama agreed. "I told you. I was just waiting for you to get old enough."

"I always half figured you and Hiei were together." Kuwabara shrugged. "Of course, I also thought Hiei was in love with Yukina, so I'm obviously not the best judge."

Kurama laughed low in his throat and leaned over to kiss him.

"You're going to live off campus, right?" he asked a few minutes later.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Because your sister is bad enough. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with a roommate." Kurama grinned as Kuwabara laughed. "Are you almost ready to head home?"

"Yeah. Let's say goodnight to Keiko first." Kuwabara stood, brushing the grass from his clothes and offered Kurama a hand up, which the redhead accepted and didn't relinquish.

"Keiko looks distracted," Kurama said thoughtfully. "We'd have to fight through a horde of relatives to get within ten feet of her. It could take the better part of an hour just to say goodnight."

Kuwabara grinned.

"Let's not take her away from her family," Kurama said, leading Kuwabara away from the party. "Shizuru hasn't left yet, has she?"

"She's chatting up one of Keiko's uncles. I think he's in lust with her already."

"Good for her," Kurama said approvingly. "So you'll have the house to yourself tonight?"

A warmth settled in Kuwabara's chest and he smiled. "Well, I was going to see if you wanted to hang out."

"I already told Kaasan I was staying out tonight."

"I love the way your mind works," Kuwabara said earnestly. "I've told you that before, haven't I?"

They skimmed the edge of the party, heading toward the street. Urameshi spotted them and leered suggestively. Kuwabara flipped him off. Kurama ignored them both.

The party went on without them.

* * *

end

c&c always appreciated


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